Jobs take center stage in race for Senate's District 28

Senate hopefuls say they can help region

Sep. 27, 2012

Written by

Brian Wilson

The Tennessean

State Rep. Joey Hensley

Former state Rep. Ty Cobb

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Unemployment exceeds 10 percent in all six of the rural Middle Tennessee counties that now make up the 28th state Senate District.

So it comes as no surprise that in the race to occupy the newly drawn state Senate seat, state Rep. Joey Hensley, R–Hohenwald, and former state Rep. Ty Cobb, D-Columbia, are squabbling over their job records as they traverse the rural district south of Nashville.

Cobb took partial credit for creating the Northfield Workforce, Development and Conference Center, a job re-training facility that was funded when he served Maury County for two years in the state Capitol.

Hensley, a 57-year-old Lewis County doctor, disputed Cobb’s role and said he’d done more to bring jobs to his three-county district, including 100 jobs in Lawrence County in the past year.

And despite calls by Cobb and Hensley for a clean campaign, both sides were willing to question how effectively their opponent could bring work to the region, which acquired the 28th after Republicans moved it east from Memphis earlier this year.

Cobb said Hensley’s record doesn’t come close to his because of the Northfield center, which he said has brought other employers into the community to hire newly trained workers.

Hensley questioned Cobb’s role in the project, saying the training center’s development had more to do with then-Gov. Phil Bredesen and Sen. Bill Ketron, who previously represented Maury County in the state Senate. He said even more jobs came into the area after Cobb left office in 2011, most notably when General Motors began production at its old Saturn plant in Spring Hill.

“I will be able to do more in the future than they had in the past,” Hensley said.

Hensley likes his electoral chances after he received more than twice as many votes as Cobb or his Republican primary opponent in the August elections. The five-term representative said he initially decided to run for the Senate seat because he thought his views would match a district that had increasingly elected Republicans to state offices.

“I felt like we needed a good conservative legislator for this district to work with leadership and get things done in these southern Middle Tennessee counties,” Hensley said. “I understand what it takes to run a business and keep regulations and taxes down.”

Cobb, a 34-year-old Columbia firefighter, saw Hensley’s experience as a longtime Republican state legislator as a liability .

“It’s not a year to be an incumbent,” he said. “It’s something people are looking at. They’re ready for change.”

Despite his 2010 loss, Cobb still wanted to take part in public service. He believes his largely rural district can still elect a Democrat, even though the two senators who used to represent the area, under its previous configuration, are both Republicans. He’s counting on an improved local economy combined with a high-turnout election to put him back on Capitol Hill.

“That’s the thing going for us this year,” he said. “People will separate Washington with state races.”

Hensley expects the opposite to happen, and thinks the number of Republicans in the state legislature will only grow in its next session. Putting him in the Senate, Hensley said, would be critical to creating any major development in the rural, six-county district.

“To get anything done in the legislature, you need to be a Republican,” Hensley said. “It’s a Republican-led House and Senate, and it’s going to be more so after the election.”